An example of a basic architecture for wireless communication is shown in FIG. 1. One or more terminals 101, e.g. user terminals such as User Equipments (UEs) communicate with a communication network 110 using radio resources 120, e.g. bearers such as E-RABs (E-UTRAN Radio Access Bearers). The communication network 110 may comprise an access network 102, e.g. comprising a base station such as an eNodeB, and a communication control network 103, e.g. a core network such as an Evolved Packet Core.
In the context of 3GPP standardization, it has been recognized that the establishment and tearing down of connections between a terminal and a communication network can lead to significant signaling overhead. In order to reduce signaling overhead it has been proposed to re-use information from a previous connection that was stored, instead performing a complete connection setup every time that a transition between an idle state and an active (i.e. connected) state of the terminal takes place. More specifically, 3GPP TR 23.720 V. 1.2.0 suggests two procedures in sections 6.5.1.2 and 6.5.1.3 called RRC suspend and RRC resume.